美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Living Drug' That Fights Cancer By Harnessing Immune System Clears Key Hurdle

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Cancer patients are a step closer to an entirely¹ new way to fight their disease. It's something scientists call a living drug. Today a pharmaceutical² company cleared a crucial hurdle³ toward offering the treatment widely to patients for the first time, starting with kids who have leukemia. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein is with us now to talk about this. And Rob, tell us what happened today.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE⁴: Yeah, hi, Kelly. So a panel of outside experts assembled by the Food and Drug Administration spent the whole day reviewing an application from the drug company Novartis. Novartis wants the FDA to let the company start selling this treatment for kids and young adults with leukemia who've run out of other options. And this would be the first time the FDA has approved this entirely new way to fight cancer. In fact the FDA says it would be the first time they were approving anything that they would call a gene⁵ therapy product.

MCEVERS: What is that? How does it work? What makes it unique?

STEIN: Yeah, so you - we all know how we usually treat cancer. We either, you know, cut it out with surgery, or we poison it with chemotherapy or radiation.

MCEVERS: Right.

STEIN: And this is part of the hot new thing in cancer research, which is using the body's natural defense⁶ system, our own immune system, to kill cancer cells. Scientists - you know, in recent years, they've come up with some new drugs that can trigger the immune system to attack tumors. What this is is scientists are using genetic⁷ engineering to create tailor-made living cells to attack tumors. And that's why scientists are calling this a living drug.

MCEVERS: How do they do it?

STEIN: Well, it's really interesting and kind of complicated. So what doctors do is they remove very specific immune systems from people's bodies - known as T cells from their blood. And they take the cells, take them back to their lab. And they use genetic engineering to reprogram the genes⁸ in the cells to turn them into what you can kind of think of as like attack drones or laser-guided missiles that zero in on their cancer cells. And then the doctors - they infuse millions of these genetically⁹ modified smart bombs back into the patients' bodies so they can obliterate¹⁰ the cancer and hopefully leave the healthy cells, you know, unscathed.

MCEVERS: And has it worked?

STEIN: So far it looks really promising¹¹. You know, the company tested this on dozens of kids and young adults who had a type of leukemia called B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It's the most common form of cancer among kids in the United States. And these patients - either they hadn't responded to the traditional therapies, or they'd had a relapse and really had run out of any other options. And when they gave them this treatment, 83 percent of the patients went into remission. So an overwhelming majority of the patients went into remission. And this isn't the only cancer it seems to be working on. It seems to be working on some other cancers as well.

MCEVERS: Are there any dangers or side effects to the treatment?

STEIN: Yeah, you know, that is a concern here. This treatment can cause some pretty severe and potentially even fatal side effects. It can cause the immune system to sort of go into overdrive and attack the patients' bodies. Doctors call this a cytokine storm. And it can cause, you know, sometimes a dangerous swelling¹² in the brain. In fact there were a handful of patients who died from this brain swelling when they were in a study sponsored by another drug company, a different version of this.

And so there are also some concerns about long-term side effects. The big concern is they genetically engineer these cells using a virus. And so so far, that all looks fine, but patients haven't really been involved that long. So there's some concern that, you know, we don't know what could happen in the future. And I guess the final big thing is this is not cheap. You know, it's a very complicated treatment to create, so it's going to cost a lot. I - you know, doctors have to tailor-make each treatment for each patient.

MCEVERS: Right.

STEIN: So we're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for each infusion¹³.

MCEVERS: Quickly, what happens next?

STEIN: So the FDA doesn't have to follow the advice of its advisers¹⁴, but it usually does. And there are some other cancers - other companies developing similar therapies that are waiting in the wings to try to get their drugs to prove true.

MCEVERS: NPR health correspondent Rob Stein, thank you.

STEIN: Oh, sure.

(SOUNDBITE OF YUSSEF KAMAAL'S "LOWRIDER")

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

3 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

8 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

9 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

10 obliterate   

v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去

参考例句：

• Whole villages were obliterated by fire.整座整座的村庄都被大火所吞噬。
• There was time enough to obliterate memories of how things once were for him.时间足以抹去他对过去经历的记忆。

11 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

12 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

13 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

14 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。